We arrived on the island of Utila just before dark, and Sarah had her usual task of running around the place scoping out sleeping options. When she got back I then ran around scoping out scuba diving options. The whole point of coming all this way was to take advantage of the world famous diving opportunities here. I knew it was low-season, and that the conditions wouldn't be great, but the Bay Islands are also famous for being one of the cheapest places in the world to get certified as a diver.
So Sarah's christmas present this year is to get qualified as a PADI scuba diver. The tiny town (more a village really) has got 11 diving operations, so I ran about checking out as many as I could as quickly as I could. It quickly became apparent that the various operators here have a price fixing thing going on, as every single place quoted identical prices for scuba courses and for individual dives - every place except one that is. Paradise divers was the only place offering cheaper options, and for some reason they were much cheaper ($229 instead of $271 for a course and $40 for 2 fun dives instead of $59). They also throw in free accommodation and 2 fun dives for doing a training course (most operators offered those freebies too, or slight variations).
So the choice of place to stay, and which scuba operator, was pretty self-evident. Of course I checked out the gear first, and although it certainly wasn't brand new or anything, it all looked in good enough condition and I got a good feeling from chatting to the guys running the place. So Sarah started her 3-day course the very next morning, as we are pretty much restricted in time now having booked a flight to Tijuana for December 18th. I spent the day exploring the town, buying and preparing lunch, strolling to the beaches either end of the town and checking out dive options for me in a bit more detail. It turned out Paradise Divers were the best option for my dives too, and the following morning I went diving with them.
Both my dives were pretty good, although being the rainy low-season the visibility wasn't great (about 10 meters or so). But it was immediately clear that this place must be amazing in good conditions. Both my dives were through fabulously varied coral gardens, and even in the overcast and chilly conditions (they didn't have a full wetsuit in my size, so I had to use a shortie - you get what you pay for I guess!), I could easily appreciate what it must be like in clear conditions. I did add a new entry on my ever growing list of crazy critters though, a mad looking toadfish.
These islands are also famous for spotting whale sharks, but again being off-season there is practically no chance of seeing them now (and I forgot about the free lecture on whale sharks the night before we left - d'oh!). So Sarah finished her course with flying colours, and the following day it was back on the road and catching the 6:20am ferry back to the mainland to make a mad dash for the famous Mayan archaeological site of Copan.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Honduras
It was an ambitious target to set, but I reckoned if all went well we could just about make it from Granada in Nicaragua to the caribbean coast of Honduras in one long day. Everything started well with an early bus from Granada to the Nicaraguan capital, Managua and then an easy connection to Ocotal near the border, and another connection on a local bus to the border itself.
Immigration was grand as there was only a tiny queue (luckily enough, as each person took ages to be processed, with more exit and entrance fees being charged ($2US and $3US respectively), and handwritten receipts being issued). But it all fell apart once we started travelling through Honduras!
Luckily enough we found a really helpful immigration official who spoke great English, and he explained that the only direct bus from the border that travelled any large distance wasn't due until 2pm that afternoon. Instead we'd have to get a series of 3 local buses to make it to the Honduran capital, from where we could get connections to the north coast.
We had to wait about 45 minutes for the first bus to depart the border (only travelling 12 kms), then we got an immediate connection on another bus the next 20 kms, before having to wait about an hour for the third connection to the capital (which gave us plenty of time for lunch). Once there though the trouble really began - fustratingly the various bus companys all have their own terminals, they tend to be scattered all over the place and they also appear to move location (as our guidebooks got their locations consistently wrong). It also means when you arrive at one company's terminal and want to get a connection with another company you have to get a taxi to the second terminal.
As always the taxi drivers are guaranteed to try and rip you off, and since the bus terminals had moved from the locations mentioned in our books, we had no idea how far the taxi ride would be and therefore no idea what a fair taxi price should be. Anyway, the first taxi brought us out to a connecting company´s terminal, but due to the earlier delays we had missed the onward bus by about 30 minutes. That would have meant another taxi to a different company to try a bus to a different place along our intended route, but they were all quoting crazy prices (probably knowing we had no idea where we were), but luckily Sarah managed to find out that a local bus would take us there more or less directly to where we wanted to go.
So getting the local bus (literally one-twentieth the cheapest price quoted by the taxi drivers!) we arranged to get a bus to San Pedro Sula, as close to the coast as we could get that night. It gave us time to order a Chinese for dinner, but we had to take it away as they took so long to prepare it. We only ordered one meal between us (portion sizes this whole trip have been huge, and so we now routinely just order one main course between us, except in the mad fancy places of course!), but this one turned out to be hugest one yet - it literally fed us that night, the next morning and we only finished it for lunch the next day.
Arriving in San Pedro Sula we discovered that the bus company terminal had moved miles outside the city. It was mad late now, and so we were forced to get yet another rip-off taxi. Luckily the hostel recommended in the guidebook turned out to be really nice and the guy there was very helpful the next morning negotiating with taxi drivers on our behalf to get us to yet another bus terminal. We had started very early again in the morning hoping to make it to the coast to catch a 9am ferry to the Bay Islands, our ultimate destination.
As it turned out, even locals and taxi drivers can get totally confused by the whole multiple-bus-company-terminal thing, as the terminal our taxi driver dropped us at was the wrong place. Luckily a guy was just leaving though to go to the correct location, and so he took us with him. Basically we had to walk about 10 minutes, catch a local minibus and get off in the middle of nowhere were in fact the correct bus was waiting for us (without that friendly local guy bringing us with him we would never have made that bus).
As it turned out we arrived in La Ceiba (which is close to the ferry point) a little before 9am but I needed to organise money and use internet banking, and the only ATM in the area didn't work. So resigned to missing the 9am ferry we just got a bus into the city centre (one less taxi thank god), and relaxed for most of the day waiting for the 4pm ferry instead (after being falsely informed by some local guy that there was an 11am ferry, and being told by the official tourist office that no ferries run on the weekend - they actually run every day!).
So we finally arrived on the Bay Island of Utila in the caribbean at 5pm, only half-a-day after our ambitious target. Even though travelling through Honduras was extremely fustrating, looking back even now just a couple of days later it wasn't so bad really.
Immigration was grand as there was only a tiny queue (luckily enough, as each person took ages to be processed, with more exit and entrance fees being charged ($2US and $3US respectively), and handwritten receipts being issued). But it all fell apart once we started travelling through Honduras!
Luckily enough we found a really helpful immigration official who spoke great English, and he explained that the only direct bus from the border that travelled any large distance wasn't due until 2pm that afternoon. Instead we'd have to get a series of 3 local buses to make it to the Honduran capital, from where we could get connections to the north coast.
We had to wait about 45 minutes for the first bus to depart the border (only travelling 12 kms), then we got an immediate connection on another bus the next 20 kms, before having to wait about an hour for the third connection to the capital (which gave us plenty of time for lunch). Once there though the trouble really began - fustratingly the various bus companys all have their own terminals, they tend to be scattered all over the place and they also appear to move location (as our guidebooks got their locations consistently wrong). It also means when you arrive at one company's terminal and want to get a connection with another company you have to get a taxi to the second terminal.
As always the taxi drivers are guaranteed to try and rip you off, and since the bus terminals had moved from the locations mentioned in our books, we had no idea how far the taxi ride would be and therefore no idea what a fair taxi price should be. Anyway, the first taxi brought us out to a connecting company´s terminal, but due to the earlier delays we had missed the onward bus by about 30 minutes. That would have meant another taxi to a different company to try a bus to a different place along our intended route, but they were all quoting crazy prices (probably knowing we had no idea where we were), but luckily Sarah managed to find out that a local bus would take us there more or less directly to where we wanted to go.
So getting the local bus (literally one-twentieth the cheapest price quoted by the taxi drivers!) we arranged to get a bus to San Pedro Sula, as close to the coast as we could get that night. It gave us time to order a Chinese for dinner, but we had to take it away as they took so long to prepare it. We only ordered one meal between us (portion sizes this whole trip have been huge, and so we now routinely just order one main course between us, except in the mad fancy places of course!), but this one turned out to be hugest one yet - it literally fed us that night, the next morning and we only finished it for lunch the next day.
Arriving in San Pedro Sula we discovered that the bus company terminal had moved miles outside the city. It was mad late now, and so we were forced to get yet another rip-off taxi. Luckily the hostel recommended in the guidebook turned out to be really nice and the guy there was very helpful the next morning negotiating with taxi drivers on our behalf to get us to yet another bus terminal. We had started very early again in the morning hoping to make it to the coast to catch a 9am ferry to the Bay Islands, our ultimate destination.
As it turned out, even locals and taxi drivers can get totally confused by the whole multiple-bus-company-terminal thing, as the terminal our taxi driver dropped us at was the wrong place. Luckily a guy was just leaving though to go to the correct location, and so he took us with him. Basically we had to walk about 10 minutes, catch a local minibus and get off in the middle of nowhere were in fact the correct bus was waiting for us (without that friendly local guy bringing us with him we would never have made that bus).
As it turned out we arrived in La Ceiba (which is close to the ferry point) a little before 9am but I needed to organise money and use internet banking, and the only ATM in the area didn't work. So resigned to missing the 9am ferry we just got a bus into the city centre (one less taxi thank god), and relaxed for most of the day waiting for the 4pm ferry instead (after being falsely informed by some local guy that there was an 11am ferry, and being told by the official tourist office that no ferries run on the weekend - they actually run every day!).
So we finally arrived on the Bay Island of Utila in the caribbean at 5pm, only half-a-day after our ambitious target. Even though travelling through Honduras was extremely fustrating, looking back even now just a couple of days later it wasn't so bad really.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Granada
The town of Granada is another one of Nicaragua's highlights apparently, and indeed it was a lovely town. We only stayed two nights (Hostal Esfinge), but since we arrived early the first day we had time to stroll about and pretty much check out all the local attractions. These are mainly lovely old churches and impressive colonials buildings, with some nice cafes and restaurants too.
The following day we got a local bus out to the National Parque Volcano Masaya, another cluster of volcanoes. The main volcano here is the most active one in all of Central America, and constantly belches out sulphuric clouds (apparently it can emit between 300 and 3000 tonnes of toxic gases every day, making it one of the world's largest naural polluters). It was certainly in a very toxic mood when we arrived, with the entire wide crater emitting a steady stream of burning cloud. We hiked around the neighbouring crater rim too. It doesn't emit any stream and appears a lot smaller. It makes for fantasic views though, all very Jurassic Park-looking.
Back in the town we strolled about some more and splashed out on dinner in the very fancy El Zaguan, having a gorgeous steak and the local vigoron (the vigoron we'd had the night before on the central square was both cheaper and nicer though!).
Next morning another very early start to try and get through the border and into Honduras...
The following day we got a local bus out to the National Parque Volcano Masaya, another cluster of volcanoes. The main volcano here is the most active one in all of Central America, and constantly belches out sulphuric clouds (apparently it can emit between 300 and 3000 tonnes of toxic gases every day, making it one of the world's largest naural polluters). It was certainly in a very toxic mood when we arrived, with the entire wide crater emitting a steady stream of burning cloud. We hiked around the neighbouring crater rim too. It doesn't emit any stream and appears a lot smaller. It makes for fantasic views though, all very Jurassic Park-looking.
Back in the town we strolled about some more and splashed out on dinner in the very fancy El Zaguan, having a gorgeous steak and the local vigoron (the vigoron we'd had the night before on the central square was both cheaper and nicer though!).
Next morning another very early start to try and get through the border and into Honduras...
Nicaragua and the volcanic islands
Having gotten through immigration so quickly we hopped on a local bus to the town of Rivas (again our lack of Spanish again causing some fustration, but in fact it has never resulted in anything bad happening, things always work out quite quickly). The bus station here was all a bit mad, dirty and hectic but we were on our way again within 20 minutes.
As Nicaragua is one of the cheapest countries in Central America I decided to check out a couple of the countries highlights - first up was the
Isla de Ometepe. This island is formed from two conjoined volcanoes sticking straight up from the fresh lake of Lake Nicaragua (it`s the biggest fresh water island in the world). So once at Rivas we needed to get a taxi to the ferry port in San Jorge in order to get the boat across to the island. We had a bit of time to kill waiting for the ferry, so we relaxed on the shores of the lake and some lunch looked out at the incredibly perfect cone of the bigger of the two volcanoes.
The one hour boat ride gave us fantastic views of the volcanoes as there wasn't much cloud, and the main volcano really is an impressive sight, being prefectly conical. The boat brought us directly to the main town on the island, and I decided to stay here rather than move to another part of the island (the guidebooks recommend other places as being nicer, but we were only staying for a couple of nights so I didn´t fancy the hassle of moving about). I thought the little town was quite nice anyway, and our hostel was friendly and cheery, being basically just a family home with just thin curtains for some of the main walls!
The next day we rented bikes and waited for the bus to take us and our bikes to the far side of the island and just cycle back (the bus was later than we´d been told, another example of locals not having much of a clue about their own buses or boats - it´s just another fustrating trait that has emerges while travelling, but more so it seems in Central America (while I´m on the topic, another annoyance is the total lack of street signs in some places, even major cities. Apparently lots of these places have no postal service, and so no need for addresses. So locals give directions in relation to well-known local landmarks, which is useless to tourists of course, and they have often never seen a map of their own town so they can´t even tell you where you are currently standing!).
Anyway the bus brought us to the other town and after checking out the local church and it´s pretty cool ancient stone statues in the grounds we rode off back towards the main town. We took a 8km detour to check out some local petroglyphs (more ancient stone carvings, these ones mostly weird shapes and symbols), and what is supposed to be the best beach on the whole island, Playa Santo Domingo.
There was no beach, or at least nothing I'd call a beach (the guidebook calls it amazing!), just a very narrow stretch of black volcanic sand at the base of a lovely hotel (maybe the lake is tidal and the tide was in or something). We had a small lunch and a drink at the fancy hotel and then I changed into my swimming shorts for a lovely swim in the very shallow lake (Sarah wasn't tempted - the weather was overcast all day, and we had drizzly rain most of the time. It was very warm though, so the rain was actually quite nice and refreshing). The lake was perfectly flat and calm, and it was weird lying back and watching tiny fish jump from the water all around me.
Then back on our bikes for the long ride back to the town. Luckily this was on a good road, as the 16km roundtrip detour to the beach and petroglyphs had been on a rough dirt road, and so we getting tired. It was a pity the weather was so overcast, as we never really got good views of the volcanoes, but the landscapes were lovely and the little villages we passed were cool.
Next morning we got the ferry back to the mainland (again being told the wrong time by the family we stayed with), and it was a quick enough jaunt to the colonial town of Granada.
As Nicaragua is one of the cheapest countries in Central America I decided to check out a couple of the countries highlights - first up was the
Isla de Ometepe. This island is formed from two conjoined volcanoes sticking straight up from the fresh lake of Lake Nicaragua (it`s the biggest fresh water island in the world). So once at Rivas we needed to get a taxi to the ferry port in San Jorge in order to get the boat across to the island. We had a bit of time to kill waiting for the ferry, so we relaxed on the shores of the lake and some lunch looked out at the incredibly perfect cone of the bigger of the two volcanoes.The one hour boat ride gave us fantastic views of the volcanoes as there wasn't much cloud, and the main volcano really is an impressive sight, being prefectly conical. The boat brought us directly to the main town on the island, and I decided to stay here rather than move to another part of the island (the guidebooks recommend other places as being nicer, but we were only staying for a couple of nights so I didn´t fancy the hassle of moving about). I thought the little town was quite nice anyway, and our hostel was friendly and cheery, being basically just a family home with just thin curtains for some of the main walls!
The next day we rented bikes and waited for the bus to take us and our bikes to the far side of the island and just cycle back (the bus was later than we´d been told, another example of locals not having much of a clue about their own buses or boats - it´s just another fustrating trait that has emerges while travelling, but more so it seems in Central America (while I´m on the topic, another annoyance is the total lack of street signs in some places, even major cities. Apparently lots of these places have no postal service, and so no need for addresses. So locals give directions in relation to well-known local landmarks, which is useless to tourists of course, and they have often never seen a map of their own town so they can´t even tell you where you are currently standing!).
Anyway the bus brought us to the other town and after checking out the local church and it´s pretty cool ancient stone statues in the grounds we rode off back towards the main town. We took a 8km detour to check out some local petroglyphs (more ancient stone carvings, these ones mostly weird shapes and symbols), and what is supposed to be the best beach on the whole island, Playa Santo Domingo.
There was no beach, or at least nothing I'd call a beach (the guidebook calls it amazing!), just a very narrow stretch of black volcanic sand at the base of a lovely hotel (maybe the lake is tidal and the tide was in or something). We had a small lunch and a drink at the fancy hotel and then I changed into my swimming shorts for a lovely swim in the very shallow lake (Sarah wasn't tempted - the weather was overcast all day, and we had drizzly rain most of the time. It was very warm though, so the rain was actually quite nice and refreshing). The lake was perfectly flat and calm, and it was weird lying back and watching tiny fish jump from the water all around me.
Then back on our bikes for the long ride back to the town. Luckily this was on a good road, as the 16km roundtrip detour to the beach and petroglyphs had been on a rough dirt road, and so we getting tired. It was a pity the weather was so overcast, as we never really got good views of the volcanoes, but the landscapes were lovely and the little villages we passed were cool.
Next morning we got the ferry back to the mainland (again being told the wrong time by the family we stayed with), and it was a quick enough jaunt to the colonial town of Granada.
Costa Rica in a blur
The plan had been to fly through Costa Rica without really stopping, as the guidebooks indicated that it is one of the most expensive Central American countries, and so it just made more sense to spend our time in the cheaper countries.
The first bus trip was easy, although we were lucky not to miss the bus completely. It arrived just as we got to the pick-up point and left immediately, even though we were about 5 minutes early. So getting to David we got an immediate connection straight to the border. Luckily there wasn't much of a queue for Panamian immigration, as the processing for each person seemed to take ages.
On the Costa Rican side there was no queue at all, and we just hopped on a bus to the capital, San Jose, pretty much straight away (after the usual bit of confusion caused by our embarrassing lack of Spanish though).
Once in San Jose it was a fairly straightforward walk to the required bus terminal. We had time for a bite to eat and I used the Internet for a bit, and then we were straight off up to Liberia. This was the first indication though of what became an extremely annoying feature of independent bus travel in this part of the world. Basically there are many different bus companies travelling to various places, and they all have their own bus terminals scattered around the place. In this first case we could easily walk between the terminals, but that certainly didn`t hold later on!
Anyway, we arrived in Liberia fairly late, but it was small enough that we could easily walk from the bus terminal into the town. After the usual checking around, we found a good, clean place to bed down for the night (not in the guidebooks). Liberia looked like a nice, clean modern little city, but the next morning it was another early start to try and get up through the border and into Nicaragua.
The first bus terminal we walked to didn`t have buses to the border (this being the first indication of how fustratingly confusing this whole multiple-bus-terminals thing really is), but the proper terminal was only a few minutes further walk. Once there is was a short enough wait for the bus to the border at Penas Blancas.
Again we were lucky with immigration as the queue moved along very quickly, and after paying our 7 dollar entry fee we were in Nicaragua, having `done` Costa Rica in just a day and a half (it did look very nice and jungley though).
The first bus trip was easy, although we were lucky not to miss the bus completely. It arrived just as we got to the pick-up point and left immediately, even though we were about 5 minutes early. So getting to David we got an immediate connection straight to the border. Luckily there wasn't much of a queue for Panamian immigration, as the processing for each person seemed to take ages.
On the Costa Rican side there was no queue at all, and we just hopped on a bus to the capital, San Jose, pretty much straight away (after the usual bit of confusion caused by our embarrassing lack of Spanish though).
Once in San Jose it was a fairly straightforward walk to the required bus terminal. We had time for a bite to eat and I used the Internet for a bit, and then we were straight off up to Liberia. This was the first indication though of what became an extremely annoying feature of independent bus travel in this part of the world. Basically there are many different bus companies travelling to various places, and they all have their own bus terminals scattered around the place. In this first case we could easily walk between the terminals, but that certainly didn`t hold later on!
Anyway, we arrived in Liberia fairly late, but it was small enough that we could easily walk from the bus terminal into the town. After the usual checking around, we found a good, clean place to bed down for the night (not in the guidebooks). Liberia looked like a nice, clean modern little city, but the next morning it was another early start to try and get up through the border and into Nicaragua.
The first bus terminal we walked to didn`t have buses to the border (this being the first indication of how fustratingly confusing this whole multiple-bus-terminals thing really is), but the proper terminal was only a few minutes further walk. Once there is was a short enough wait for the bus to the border at Penas Blancas.
Again we were lucky with immigration as the queue moved along very quickly, and after paying our 7 dollar entry fee we were in Nicaragua, having `done` Costa Rica in just a day and a half (it did look very nice and jungley though).
Boquete
It turned out to be painless again to get all the way to Boquete, simply involving a stroll back to the mad junction we'd been to the day we went to the canal, a locl bus to the main bus termainl and then another bus to the city of David. From there we just hopped on a connecting bus to Boquete, just 1 hour away.
As usual Sarah ran around checking out the hostel options, and we settled on the cheapest and nicest place of them all. In fact it was such a nice place (Hotel Marilos, only $10 a night), and such a nice town, that I was seriously tempted to stay for a third night, but in the end the weather wasn't great, time was tight and I was anxious to make a fair bit of progress up towards Mexico (as we were hoping to get to California to visit my aunt and see my Ma for Christmas).
So the next day we had the luxury of sleeping in quite late and then strolled the few km's to the animal refuge of Paradise Gardens (Mullin's had stayed in Boquete a few months back and volunteered here for a few weeks). It was a fantastic place, only started 3 or 4 years ago by an English couple who retired here, and they have done an amazing job of landscaping the grounds and erecting enclosures for the various animals. We spent a few hours just being guided around by a lovely chatty, friendly American retiree and then just strolled around on our own amongst the amazing toucans, the baby sloth, the margay, some mad rare cat thing I can't remember the name of, the crazy gang of 7 macaws, the hummingbirds, etc.
After the refuge, Sarah went back to the hostel to relax while I strolled to the other side of town to check out a coffee factory and a neighbouring private garden that's open to the public. The gardens were again really impressively maintained - lots of ponds with carp and more impressive landscaping (and not a single other soul anywhere to be seen, which was nice).
The coffee factory, though, was a bit disappointing. I had wanted to do tour of the coffee planation itself, but that was way too expensive (and much more so than the guidebooks suggested, so I suppose business must be good), but they had a factory tour option that was cheap. When I got there though, the factory was really small, and you could see into the whole operation from big windows in the walls of the adjoining cafe. So I just had a coffee (not even that great to be honest!), and just watched the couple of guys working in the factory.
Like I said, I could have stayed another day or two just relaxing in Boquete (and given the way this trip has moved along at a snails pace so far, if it wasn't for the time constraints I almost certainly would have), but the next morning was an early start to try and blitz up through as much of Costa Rica as possible.
As usual Sarah ran around checking out the hostel options, and we settled on the cheapest and nicest place of them all. In fact it was such a nice place (Hotel Marilos, only $10 a night), and such a nice town, that I was seriously tempted to stay for a third night, but in the end the weather wasn't great, time was tight and I was anxious to make a fair bit of progress up towards Mexico (as we were hoping to get to California to visit my aunt and see my Ma for Christmas).
So the next day we had the luxury of sleeping in quite late and then strolled the few km's to the animal refuge of Paradise Gardens (Mullin's had stayed in Boquete a few months back and volunteered here for a few weeks). It was a fantastic place, only started 3 or 4 years ago by an English couple who retired here, and they have done an amazing job of landscaping the grounds and erecting enclosures for the various animals. We spent a few hours just being guided around by a lovely chatty, friendly American retiree and then just strolled around on our own amongst the amazing toucans, the baby sloth, the margay, some mad rare cat thing I can't remember the name of, the crazy gang of 7 macaws, the hummingbirds, etc.
After the refuge, Sarah went back to the hostel to relax while I strolled to the other side of town to check out a coffee factory and a neighbouring private garden that's open to the public. The gardens were again really impressively maintained - lots of ponds with carp and more impressive landscaping (and not a single other soul anywhere to be seen, which was nice).
The coffee factory, though, was a bit disappointing. I had wanted to do tour of the coffee planation itself, but that was way too expensive (and much more so than the guidebooks suggested, so I suppose business must be good), but they had a factory tour option that was cheap. When I got there though, the factory was really small, and you could see into the whole operation from big windows in the walls of the adjoining cafe. So I just had a coffee (not even that great to be honest!), and just watched the couple of guys working in the factory.
Like I said, I could have stayed another day or two just relaxing in Boquete (and given the way this trip has moved along at a snails pace so far, if it wasn't for the time constraints I almost certainly would have), but the next morning was an early start to try and blitz up through as much of Costa Rica as possible.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Panama
So the flight to Panama City was quick and painless (we even got a small lunch, which was handy as we'd used up all our Colombian money buying the cheapest snacks we could find from a street seller outside the airport in Cartagena).
But there were huge queues for getting through immigration once we arrived, which is always annoying (although amazingly on this trip, after 17 countries, it was the first time we had major queues). In fairness they had a lot of immigation staff, and the passport check itself was very quick, so I think it must have been a case of a lot of aircraft arriving at the same time.
But after that and getting our bags, there was another queue to get through security. When we asked at information for how to get a bus to the centre I really started to get annoyed. The girl there basically refused to tell us, instead telling us, repeatedly, that we must get a taxi as it was now dark and far too dangerous to get the bus. We asked again at another information desk, and were told the same thing, and so I got really annoyed! We had a quick look outside the terminal for the bus stop anyway, but it wasn't obvious, and so in total fustration I finally relented and just got a taxi.
Most taxis here are collectivos, where 4 or more people share a single taxi. So we agreed our price with the driver and got into the people carrier with 3 other people. They were all business men, and 2 of them were clearly confused by the 'collectivo' situation, as one of them thought he was getting a personal taxi, but he stayed put anyway. He paid significantly more than he should have too, so he really got ripped off.
Anyway, we got dropped off at a hostel recommended in the guidebooks, and it turned out to be fine (Hostel Colon). It was in the old part of town, and in it's hayday must have been a beautiful large old building with nice Spanish tiling, but now it's all quite run down really. The whole old town is undergoing extensive renovations as Panama's economy booms (the new town is chock-a-block with massive sktscrapers).
So the next day we got up early to get to the Panama Canal. We strolled to where the guidebook said we could get a bus, a major junction, but it was all mad confusing. Asking a local guy (always a dodgey thing to do), we ended up going to the main bus terminal and having to get a connecting bus. It menat we got delayed, but at least we could checkoutbusoptions for our onward destinationin Panama.
When we arrived at the canal we were just in time to see the last of the morning ships passing through the locks (they pass in the morning from 9am-11am, and then again from 3pm-5pm). So to see the ships passing properly we needed to hang around for the whole afternoon. I didn't mind as the museum and video were both quite good, explaining the history and how the whole system works, and the massive $5billion expansion plans.
When the ships started passing through again we got to see a tanker, a cruise ship (the Rotterdam) and a huge container ship - 3 of the 4 main types of ships (the 4th type being grain ships). For me the most impressive thing was the scale of the ships themselves - the cruise ship was paying $140,000US, $120US for each passenger, just to pass through the canal. But the whole setup is all very impressive too, although strangely quite and relaxed looking. It all seems to operate like any canal lock system (such as those on the Shannon), and seems equally slow but just on a much larger scale. There seemed to be very few people needed to operate the whole thing.
The next day we explored the old town properly. It was all much nicer during the day of course, not as intimidating as when we'd arriving at night. When all the renovation is complete it should be a really nice place (right now it reminded me of Havana with all the lovely old buildings crumbling to pieces). There are already quite a few nice restaurants about, and we had a lovely lunch before heading up to the new town to have a wander. The traffic was terrible though, so we didn't have much time before heading back to the hostel.
As we approached the restaurant we'd been to the night before (the Coca-Cola Cafe, a famous cafeteria place full of colourful locals and good cheap grub), we noticed the main door was closed and a group of people had gathered around looking at something. It turned out that someone had been shot about an hour earlier in a robbery. We could see the body on the ground and the police and ambulance people milling about. It turned out the cafe was open, so we went in another door and just had our dinner, occasionally looking out the window at the scene of the shooting like most of the locals, who seemed to be fairly used to this kind of thing. Then it was around the corner back to our hostel for the night - apparently our neighbourhood is quite dangerous!
Next morning it was time to move on and hopefully get to a place called Boquete towards Costa Rica.
But there were huge queues for getting through immigration once we arrived, which is always annoying (although amazingly on this trip, after 17 countries, it was the first time we had major queues). In fairness they had a lot of immigation staff, and the passport check itself was very quick, so I think it must have been a case of a lot of aircraft arriving at the same time.
But after that and getting our bags, there was another queue to get through security. When we asked at information for how to get a bus to the centre I really started to get annoyed. The girl there basically refused to tell us, instead telling us, repeatedly, that we must get a taxi as it was now dark and far too dangerous to get the bus. We asked again at another information desk, and were told the same thing, and so I got really annoyed! We had a quick look outside the terminal for the bus stop anyway, but it wasn't obvious, and so in total fustration I finally relented and just got a taxi.
Most taxis here are collectivos, where 4 or more people share a single taxi. So we agreed our price with the driver and got into the people carrier with 3 other people. They were all business men, and 2 of them were clearly confused by the 'collectivo' situation, as one of them thought he was getting a personal taxi, but he stayed put anyway. He paid significantly more than he should have too, so he really got ripped off.
Anyway, we got dropped off at a hostel recommended in the guidebooks, and it turned out to be fine (Hostel Colon). It was in the old part of town, and in it's hayday must have been a beautiful large old building with nice Spanish tiling, but now it's all quite run down really. The whole old town is undergoing extensive renovations as Panama's economy booms (the new town is chock-a-block with massive sktscrapers).
So the next day we got up early to get to the Panama Canal. We strolled to where the guidebook said we could get a bus, a major junction, but it was all mad confusing. Asking a local guy (always a dodgey thing to do), we ended up going to the main bus terminal and having to get a connecting bus. It menat we got delayed, but at least we could checkoutbusoptions for our onward destinationin Panama.
When we arrived at the canal we were just in time to see the last of the morning ships passing through the locks (they pass in the morning from 9am-11am, and then again from 3pm-5pm). So to see the ships passing properly we needed to hang around for the whole afternoon. I didn't mind as the museum and video were both quite good, explaining the history and how the whole system works, and the massive $5billion expansion plans.
When the ships started passing through again we got to see a tanker, a cruise ship (the Rotterdam) and a huge container ship - 3 of the 4 main types of ships (the 4th type being grain ships). For me the most impressive thing was the scale of the ships themselves - the cruise ship was paying $140,000US, $120US for each passenger, just to pass through the canal. But the whole setup is all very impressive too, although strangely quite and relaxed looking. It all seems to operate like any canal lock system (such as those on the Shannon), and seems equally slow but just on a much larger scale. There seemed to be very few people needed to operate the whole thing.
The next day we explored the old town properly. It was all much nicer during the day of course, not as intimidating as when we'd arriving at night. When all the renovation is complete it should be a really nice place (right now it reminded me of Havana with all the lovely old buildings crumbling to pieces). There are already quite a few nice restaurants about, and we had a lovely lunch before heading up to the new town to have a wander. The traffic was terrible though, so we didn't have much time before heading back to the hostel.
As we approached the restaurant we'd been to the night before (the Coca-Cola Cafe, a famous cafeteria place full of colourful locals and good cheap grub), we noticed the main door was closed and a group of people had gathered around looking at something. It turned out that someone had been shot about an hour earlier in a robbery. We could see the body on the ground and the police and ambulance people milling about. It turned out the cafe was open, so we went in another door and just had our dinner, occasionally looking out the window at the scene of the shooting like most of the locals, who seemed to be fairly used to this kind of thing. Then it was around the corner back to our hostel for the night - apparently our neighbourhood is quite dangerous!
Next morning it was time to move on and hopefully get to a place called Boquete towards Costa Rica.
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